Away in a laneway, no room for a tree

I wrote about our first Christmas in the laneway house just one year ago. Now I’ve had a whole year to think about decorating our little space and I’ve found lots of ideas on what to do when you JUST DON’T HAVE ROOM for a traditional Christmas trees. I started with the ideas I found last year, and searched the internet (with a little help from Apartment Therapy and Houzz).

Don’t think that you have to give up the idea of having live greens inside. You can drop by a tree lot late in the day and ask if you can have some of the lower branches they’ve trimmed off the trees. Have an idea how long the branches should be to fit into your container so you can ask them to take off a couple of inches for a perfect fit. It doesn’t have to be big to be striking:

But these ideas need a little corner of a table or floor to display them. And if you don’t have that little space to spare I can certainly feel your pain.

Take a look at your walls — you can finesse a Christmas tree by using some of that vertical space. (Maybe take down some of your current artwork for a real change).

Here’s a do-it-yourself tree that can look as zippy and modern or as sweet and old fashioned as you like, depending on what papers you choose. This one is made of paint chips — but you could use regular coloured paper or even Christmas wrap.

You can also make this cute and modern string tree with the kids. Hang ornaments or Christmas cards (or a combination of both). It’s put up with Command transparent hooks so no damage to your wall.

In fact there’s no end to the ideas on how you can put a tree directly on a wall.

Use lights (and Command hooks) to make a tree:

Or just place anything, ornaments or cards or a combination, in a roughly triangular shape:

How about putting some decorations in your windows. Use the existing curtain rod, or put a spring loaded rod within the window area.

Or just hang a nice grouping with bright ribbon:

Still can’t find the room? Look up! Here are the instructions to put together this striking mobile — put it over your table for a lovely centrepiece that won’t take up any table space or block the person on the other side.

Do you have a balcony or deck? Or even a little yard? Put your tree outside. We do:

It sits just outside our sitting area window so we can enjoy it from the comfort of our couch without it crowding us at all. I’m thinking about painting the lights cord white to hide it better.

We used an artificial tree, you could use a live tree or even a living tree in a pot. Or a tomato cage: